Amnesty: Forced home evictions are rising in China

AP foreign, Wednesday October 10 2012

BEIJING (AP) — Amnesty International says cases of Chinese authorities forcibly evicting people from their homes have risen significantly. The human rights group says such forced evictions are a serious threat to social and political stability.

Forced demolitions have long been common in China as millions of residents have had to relocate to make way for real estate development.

But the report Amnesty released Thursday said evictions escalated over the past three years during a construction boom that was spurred by massive stimulus spending after the global financial crisis.

It says local authorities seize and then sell off land to property developers.

Of 40 forced evictions the group says it examined in detail, nine people died fighting evictions. In one case, a 70-year-old woman was buried alive by an excavator.